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The 2016 North American International Auto Show opened in Detroit on January 11, and Fiat-Chrysler's new Pacifica minivan is one of the show's stars. In this episode of SAE Eye on Engineering, Senior Editor Lindsay Brooke looks at some of the 37 new innovations coming in the 2017 Pacifica.

The 2016 Prius is longer, lower, and wider, and special attention was paid to the gasoline portion of the car’s gasoline-electric drivetrain with a claimed 40% thermodynamic efficiency for the Atkinson cycle 2ZR-FXE 1.8-L I4 naturally aspirated gasoline engine, a number that rivals turbodiesels.

At the 2016 CES in Las Vegas, Volkswagen provided a glimpse into its electric future with an all-electric BUDD-e minivan concept. It would be the first model based on a new company "technology matrix" for electric vehicles called MEB, short for Modular Electric Drive Kit.

Tech Mahindra Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) have jointly entered into an agreement with Pincar S.r.l. to purchase a controlling stake in Pininfarina S.p.A., an Italian brand in automotive and industrial design.

Called the FFZero1, the exotically styled, carbon-fiber-bodied machine—a “high performance electric dream car,” as it was presented to the audience—features interesting battery-pack design and capability to package one to four electric traction motors, delivering up to 1000 hp (746 kW) to two or four drive wheels, depending on configuration.

The first Volvo hybrid city bus pilot will start in the first half of 2016 in Navi Mumbai with Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT). To promote environmentally friendly vehicles, the Indian government has recently launched the FAME India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India) program, offering incentives on electric and hybrid vehicles.

The company is well on its way increasing its market presence, with worldwide military products that include 1800 aircraft sold to 70 countries, with 145 operators and over 5 million flight hours accumulated.

Porsche announced it will build the electric Mission E concept, and with Bentley, is now positioned to share advanced technologies. Each brand is heading for pure electric-production models, each targeting 500-km range, huge acceleration capability, and 15-20 minute 800V battery charging times.

Two upstart Chinese companies with big automotive ambitions are grabbing headlines as they lure top engineering and product-development talent— and prepare to unveil potentially disrupting new products and technology strategies.

The SUV continues to win customers and a compact sport utility may be the ideal package. In this episode of SAE Eye on Engineering, Senior Editor Lindsay Brooke looks at the top sellers in the compact SUV boom.

GM recently announced that its fuel-cell engineering team is working with the U.S. Army TARDEC to develop a prototype pickup truck with a commercial hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain that is capable of meeting U.S. military duty cycles. The vehicle will be put into daily use and driven by soldiers for 12 months.

Still based on Ford's CD4 platform, the MKZ will pack a Lincoln-exclusive (at least for the short term) twin-turbocharged V6 packing an SAE-rated 400 hp (298 kW) and 400 lb·ft (542 N·m), the new Ford-GM “alliance”-engineered 9-speed automatic, and torque-vectoring AWD driveline.

With the flair and flavor of its Italian ancestor, the Fiat 124 Spider returns after a multi-decade absence sporting a powerful powertrain and the underpinnings of the fourth-generation Mazda MX-5 Miata.

Aerodynamic experts are cautiously optimistic that a long-awaited leap in vehicle fuel efficiency is advancing toward near-term production: the replacement of the two exterior mirrors with camera-based streaming-vision technology—at no overall cost penalty.

The mixed-materials construction and the new C1XX platform enabled the development team to reduce base curb weight by 278 lb versus its predecessor and undercut its closest competitor, the mass-efficient (and shorter) Audi Q5, by a claimed 100 lb.

Daimler Trucks North America has referred to its $40 million, five-year SuperTruck program that concluded earlier this year as “a playground for our engineers.” Overseeing this playground’s development and integration activities was Derek Rotz, the Principal Investigator who was hired in 2010 when the program kicked off. He spoke with SAE Magazines about the challenges, lessons learned, and their ongoing work.